Celts Beat(!!) Sonics: Boston 106- Seattle 96

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

	If you're a C's fan, you had to be tremendously excited by the
Celt's performance last night (perhaps their best of the season).
Down the stretch Kenny Anderson dominated on offense scoring 8 of 10
Celtics points (and he assisted on the other 2) as the Celts firmly
asserted command of the game.  Anderson's late heroics tended to
overshadow strong performances by Dana, Minor, Mercer, Ellison and
especially Bruce Bowen.  In addition to the addition of Anderson the
Celts also activated Ellison and Dante Jones (they moved PopEye and
Bluto.... I mean Tabak to the IR).  Detleif Schrempf missed the game
for the Sonics.

	Early on in this game, the Celts played very tentatively
 on offense.  Vin Baker got 2 quick fouls on DeClercq, and Pitino
brought in Pervis off the bench.   The Celts were only able to score 9
points over the first 7 minutes of the game, as they tried to defeat
the Sonics alert defense with ball movement.  The Sonics moved their
feet and kept good pressure on the ball, and were able to prevent the
C's from getting good looks at the basket.  The Celts fell behind
19-9, before they started to drive to the basket.  They were able to
make a mini 7-4 run at the end of the period to close the gap to 23-16
at the end of the quarter.

	Early in the 2nd quarter the two clubs traded baskets, and the
Sonics held a 30-22 lead, about 3:00 into the quarter.  Tyus Edney
came into the game for Anderson, and sparked the team, as the Celts
went on a 5-0 run to pull to within 3 (30-27: most of this with Payton
and Baker on the bench).    Anderson came back into the game and hit a
jumper and a gorgeous driving lay-up to tie up the game at 35-35.
Dana Barros came in for Anderson, and Payton immediately attacked Dana
and was able to put the Sonics back into the lead at 42-39.  The Celts
got a trey from McCarty and a conventional 3 from Minor to forge a
46-44 half time lead.

	The Celts continued to play well offensively, as the second
half started, especially getting good outside shooting from Mercer, as
they took a 9 point lead at 58-49.  Barros came in for Anderson, but
at the same time, Pitino put Bowen into the game and had Bruce pick up
Payton.  I thought that Gary misjudged the situation, and rather than
trying to go to Hawkins against Barros, took it as a personal
challenge to try to break down Bowen off the dribble.  You know what?
He couldn't do it.  Bowen stopped Payton from driving several times
and forced him to pass the ball back out to the perimeter.
Unfortunately the C's offense fell silent at this point and allowed
the Sonics to close the gap to just 2 at 62-60, before Rick reinserted
Anderson for Barros.  Pitino let Anderson try to guard Payton, but
Kenny couldn't handle the chore either.  The Celts did push the lead
back up to 5 on a Travis Knight conventional three point play off a
nice feed from McCarty.  But the Sonics responded with 2 consecutive 3
point baskets to take a 72-71 lead into the 4th quarter.

	Pitno went back to the Barros\Bowen combination at the start
of the 4th and the Celts responded with a 9-1 run to take an 80-73
lead with 8:30 to go.  The 2 clubs traded baskets again  and after a
Hawkins 3 the Sonics had but the Celts lead to 4 at 87-83.  The C's,
with the Sonics go-to guy Payton, effectively eliminated, were able to
shut down the Sonics offense for about 3.30. allowing just 2 free
throws.  Meanwhile, Anderson returned to the game and started off with
a jumper of the dribble (91-83) and then came back with another
(93-85).  After he took a somewhat wild shot, he found Bowen for an
easy jam to put the Celts up 95-85 with just 1:50 to go.  Sam Perkins
helped out the C's cause by putting up a series of errant 3-point
attempts.  Meanwhile the Sonics were sending Anderson to the line.
Kenny hit 4-6.  All in all Anderson scored 8 out of ten Celtic points,
between the 4:00 and 1:00 marks (and he assisted on the other 2
points).  The Celts hit their free throws to win the game out, 106-96.

	After a miserable start, shooting the ball, the C's came back
to post a .477 FG%, more than respectable against a fine defensive
team like the Sonics.  They held the Sonics to .447, though that was
partially self inflicted as the Sonics were 6-21 on threes.  The Celts
caused 18 Seattle turnovers (to 13 of their own), and also grabbed 5
more offensive boards.  In fast the only facet of the game where the
Sonics had any advantage was free throw shooting where they were
22-30, compared to the Celtic's 18-28.

Lineups:
Celts: Anderson, Mercer, Minor, Walker, DeClercq
Sonics: Payton, Hawkins, Wingate, Baker, McIlvaine 

Players:
Anderson:  I don't think there were any real surprises for folks
who've seen Kenny play before.  He is a very fine point guard in a
half court offense.  He can keep his dribble in almost any
circumstance, drive, finish, dish and pull up and hit the jumper.  His
defense is fair, but no better than that.  I did not see any
indication in this game that he likes the up tempo game.  He is quite
content to walk the ball up the court, and run half court.  Certainly
the value of this trade depends on his ability to adjust to the Pitino
style for the first 44 minutes of the game.  What I don't think anyone
can doubt is that the Celt's have gained a powerful option for the
last 4 minutes of any game they're  in.  Kenny played for 23 minutes,
had 19 points, 4 assists and 3 turnovers.

Walker: I didn't mention Toine much in the description of the game, as
he had a pretty quiet game. Hhe shot the ball just 15 times, hit 7,
had 16 points, 6 boards and 6 assists.  There was one portion of the
game, where Toine played the point on offense with Barros at the 2,
and Bowen taking the defensive point responsibilities.

Mercer: Strong shooting night for Ron, who might well be the greatest
beneficiary of Anderson's arrival.  He shot 8-16, had 17 points and 4
boards in 31 minutes.

Dana: had a very nice game himself with 12 points (5-11) and 6 assists
in 22 minutes.  After a slow start on the roadtrip he has definitely
picked it up the last 3 games.  Dana twisted his ankle in the last
minute of the game, and had to be helped back to the locker room.  It
looked moderately serious.

Minor: a very heady game for Greg as he played for 27 minutes, had 13
points on 5-7 shooting, 4 boards, 3 assists and 2 steals.  I've always
thought of Greg as a physically talented player without the highest
b-ball IQ in the world.  There had been a noticeable increase in the
intelligence of his play over the last 2 months (so certainly we know
that b-ball smarts aren't inate).

Bowen: setting aside Kenny's late game heroics, clearly the star of
the game for the Celts.  He shut down Anderson.  I would guess that
Bruce had the responsibility of guarding Payton for 12-15 minutes, and
held him to 4 points and a minimal effect on the rest of the Seattle
offense (and Payton's only basket was on a break away off a Celtic
turnover).  I'm not sure that if Gary had tried to penetrate and pull
up on Bruce he might not have been able to get some good shots off,
but Payton kept trying to go to the basket, and Bruce just wouldn't
let him get by.  If fact Payton picked up a couple of offensive fouls
trying to bull Bowen  out of the way.  In addition Bruce scored 9
points and had 7 boards in his 20 minutes.

Ellison:  As you would expect, Pervis showed some definite signs of
rust, especially early in the game.  But he was the only Celtic big
man who could hang with Baker in the post, and he played a major role
in the win.  He had 3 points, 5 boards and a block in 19 minutes.

McCarty: seemed to have a little recurrence of long-ball disease, as
he hoisted quite a few jumpers, as opposed to driving to the basket
like the Sacramento game.  He did score 10, and garnered 4 assists in
27 minutes of PT.

DeClercq: Started out the game on Baker, but quickly got into foul
trouble.  I don't think he was on the court for more than 4 minutes at
a stretch in the entire game.  Ended up with 2 points, 4 boards and 3
fouls in 13 minutes.

Knight: Stats look decent as he scored 5, had 4 boards and 2 steals in
13 minutes.  But Baker completely abused him, and even Sam Perkins
took him into the paint and pushed him around.

Edney: got just 3 minutes.  I suppose it's back to the Gulag for Tyus.

Dante Jones: DNP

Coaching:  I thought one of Pitino's best jobs of manipulating
defensive matchups all season.  He not only switched Bowen onto Payton
(though I think he initially did it more as a change of pace, than
anything), but he also made sure that Toine did not have to cover
Baker (while Baker did have to cover Toine).  Vin was also quiet down
the stretch, partially due to poor offensive judgement on the part of
his teammates, but he might have been a little tired out by that
point.  The C's also did a terrific job of covering Ellis, who was 1-6
on threes, getting just a couple of open looks.

The Celts play their next game in Portland on Sunday.

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com